


Friends in High Places

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen, hints of two/jamie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 18:56:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10577454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: The Doctor and Jamie mount a rescue for Zoe, but not everything is as they expect…





	

**Author's Note:**

> for [keatulie](keatulie.tumblr.com).

“Zoe!”

The Doctor skidded into the small, bare room, grabbing her hand and pulling her out, Jamie dragged along on his other side. “There’s no time to waste,” he said – rather unnecessarily, Jamie thought, seeing as they could already hear the shouts of guards. “We’ve got about forty-five seconds before -”

“Doctor -” Zoe tried to pull on his hand to stop him, but the Doctor seemed to have worked up too much momentum to be halted, as if he were tumbling down a steep hill. “No, Doctor, you have to let me go back -”

“Are ye alright, Zoe?” Jamie managed after a frightening sweep around the corner. “They havenae harmed ye?”

“No, I’ve been treated very well – Doctor! You have to let me go.”

At last, the Doctor slid to a stop. Jamie and Zoe were thrown off-balance by the sudden change in speed, Jamie held upright by the Doctor grabbing him around the waist, Zoe thrown to the floor with a cry of alarm.

“You’re not yourself, Zoe,” the Doctor said, stepping towards her. “What’ve they done to you?”

“ _Nothing_ – now hurry, there might just be time to -”

Zoe froze mid-sentence. The Doctor and Jamie exchanged alarmed glances, wondering if this was some new manifestation of the control that was clearly being exerted over her, before realising that she was watching something. As one, they turned to see a massive, heavily-armoured Hyracii guard looming over them, double-headed halberd pointed at each of their chests. It – _she_ , Jamie thought, or perhaps _zhe_ , he found it hard to tell – motioned to two of the other guards. They lifted Zoe to her feet with surprising gentleness for creatures who so strongly resembled bipedal hippopotamuses. Zoe looked so very small between them, and Jamie hated to imagine what such a warlike race could do to her if they wished.

“Empress Nykza-Zoe-Accalyteca,” the leader growled. “These vagabonds -” the word was spat out towards them, as if bitter - “they have not harmed you?”

“Nykza?” the Doctor whispered to Jamie. “That’s their word for ‘she who reigns’! And ‘Accalyteca’ - well, the best translation would be ‘war queen’. But how ‘”

“Empress,” Jamie echoed, focusing on what little he had understood. “Doctor, they called Zoe empress.”

Zoe straightened, pulling herself up to her full height, her expression becoming cold and emotionless, as if she had suddenly returned to being the girl they had met on the Wheel. “No,” she replied. “I suspect they are simple criminals, hoping for some sort of ransom. Stupid of them, really.” She turned that same expression on the Doctor and Jamie, a touch of disdain curling at the edge of her mouth. “This is Commander Katacylicalga. Zhe is the most respected and feared of her rank. Did you really believe you could make an attempt to kidnap me without zher guards realising?” She turned back to the commander. “Poor planning, as I said. We have little to be concerned about.”

“Do not be so careless, Empress,” Katacylicalga hissed. “This may be a distraction for something more serious. An attack on our palace or sacred temple. Perhaps even an assassination attempt.” Zher dark, beady eyes glinted eagerly at the very suggestion.

“Then I shall consult the War Advisor,” Zoe said thoughtfully. “He is wise. Perhaps he will be able to plan a course of action.”

“I am subject to your Bloodthirstiness in all things.” Katacylicalga bowed, never letting the halberd stray from the Doctor and Jamie.

“Bloodthirstiness?” Jamie exclaimed. The Doctor laid a hand on his arm, as if to hold him back, but it was too late. Katacylicalga’s head swung around towards him, her snout inches from his face, making him lean back nervously. “Zoe – can ye not stop this? What’re you doing?”

“Address the Empress by her proper title!” Katacylicalga snarled, twitching as if she was trying to control the urge to strike him. “I am placing you under immediate arrest, to face trial by endurance test in the morning.”

“Endurance test?” Jamie repeated. “What’s that?”

“Do not feign ignorance,” Zoe snapped. “You know our laws well.”

“I don’t – ye know that, Zoe -”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like, Jamie.” The Doctor pulled him closer, out of the immediate range of the Commander’s fists. “We have to face a number of physical trials, and they question us as e reach exhaustion.”

“But that’s -” _Barbaric_ , Jamie wanted to say. _Primitive_. But then again, he thought, would he not say that of many things he had been raised with himself, if he encountered them on an alien world? What would Jamie McCrimmon, wanderer amongst the stars, say to witch burnings and floggings and the harshness of his own time? What would he say to himself, three years younger, with little idea of what lay beyond his own home, let alone his whole planet? “What can ye charge us with, anyway?”

“It’s, ah, it’s about the abduction, Jamie,” the Doctor supplied.

“What abduction? We’ve no’ abducted anyone -”

“We have abducted their empress, Jamie.”

“Oh.” Jamie glanced over at Zoe. “But I still dinnae understand how she -”

“I don’t know either!” the Doctor exclaimed. “I don’t have all the answers, Jamie!”

“Take them away.” Zoe’s order cut through their whispered conversation, and the Doctor and Jamie were shoved none too gently down the corridor, Zoe being led off towards the room they had found her in. As she went, she turned back towards them, catching their eyes and winking at them. The Doctor chuckled quietly, while Jamie simply groaned, slumping down on the cold bench of the cell they had been allocated.

“How did Zoe become the empress?” he repeated, hiding his face in his hands despairingly. “ _Your Bloodthirstiness_ – I mean, that’s no’ Zoe.”

“No, it isn’t,” the Doctor said thoughtfully, sitting down beside Jamie, one finger held to his lips. “So I wonder how she convinced them.”

“Looked like she had a pretty good hold on them, though.”

“So we’d better hope that she can get us out of here,” the Doctor finished. “Yes. Yes, I think we stand a good chance.” He grinned mischievously, turning to Jamie. “Fancy that, eh? Our Zoe, an empress!”


End file.
